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Wearable electronic devices have emerged as a pivotal technology in healthcare and artificial intelligence robots. Among the materials that are employed in wearable electronic devices, organic thermoelectric materials possess great application potential due to their advantages such as flexibility, easy processing ability, no working noise, being self-powered, applicable in a wide range of scenarios, etc. However, compared with classic conductive materials and inorganic thermoelectric materials, the research on organic thermoelectric materials is still insufficient. In order to improve our understanding of the potential of organic thermoelectric materials in wearable electronic devices, this paper reviews the types of organic thermoelectric materials and composites, their assembly strategies, and their potential applications in wearable electronic devices. This review aims to guide new researchers and offer strategic insights into wearable electronic device development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mg 2 (Ge, Sn) solid solutions are eco-friendly thermoelectric materials in moderate temperature (500–800 K) range. However, p-type Mg 2 (Ge, Sn) solid solutions show poor thermoelectric performance compared to the n-type counterpart. In this work, the filtering of low energy holes and the blocking of thermal excited electrons in Mg 1.92 Li 0.08 Ge 0.4 Sn 0.6 by Si addition are demonstrated, which optimize the power factor by interface barrier and reduce the lattice thermal conductivity by nanoscale composition fluctuation. Finally, the power factor of ~1.85 × 10−3 Wm−1 K−2 and the dimensionless figure of merit ZT ~0.75 are achieved in Li doped Mg 2 Ge 0.4 Sn 0.6 with Si addition at 723 K. When the band gap of matrix (E g1) is smaller than the band gap of second phase (E g2), the interface barriers in panel (a) may filter the low-energy holes while allowing the high-energy holes in the valence band (VB) before bipolar effect. Above thermal excited temperature, the energy barriers in panel (b) can filter the low-energy holes and simultaneously block the thermal excited electrons in the conduction band (CB) to suppress bipolar effect. Eventually, the results indicate that the power factor obviously increased and the thermal conductivity significantly decreased by the filtering of the low-energy holes and the blocking of the thermal excited electrons. Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the society is characterized by an increasing flow of information from things to the internet. Sensors have become the cornerstone of the internet-of-everything as they track various parameters in the society and send them to the cloud for analysis, forecast, or learning. With the many parameters to sense, sensors are becoming complex and difficult to manufacture. To reduce the complexity of manufacturing, one can instead create advanced functional materials that react to multiple stimuli. To this end, conducting polymer aerogels are promising materials as they combine elasticity and sensitivity to pressure and temperature. However, the challenge is to read independently pressure and temperature output signals without cross-talk. Here, a strategy to fully decouple temperature and pressure reading in a dual-parameter sensor based on thermoelectric polymer aerogels is demonstrated. It is found that aerogels made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) can display properties of semiconductors lying at the transition between insulator and semimetal upon exposure to high boiling point polar solvents, such as dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). Importantly, because of the temperature-independent charge transport observed for DMSO-treated PEDOT-based aerogel, a decoupled pressure and temperature sensing can be achieved without cross-talk in the dual-parameter sensor devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure (P), temperature (T), and humidity (H) are physical key parameters of great relevance for various applications such as in distributed diagnostics, robotics, electronic skins, functional clothing, and many other Internet‐of‐Things (IoT) solutions. Previous studies on monitoring and recording these three parameters have focused on the integration of three individual single‐parameter sensors into an electronic circuit, also comprising dedicated sense amplifiers, signal processing, and communication interfaces. To limit complexity in, e.g., multifunctional IoT systems, and thus reducing the manufacturing costs of such sensing/communication outposts, it is desirable to achieve one single‐sensor device that simultaneously or consecutively measures P–T–H without cross‐talks in the sensing functionality. Herein, a novel organic mixed ion–electron conducting aerogel is reported, which can sense P–T–H with minimal cross‐talk between the measured parameters. The exclusive read‐out of the three individual parameters is performed electronically in one single device configuration and is enabled by the use of a novel strategy that combines electronic and ionic Seebeck effect along with mixed ion–electron conduction in an elastic aerogel. The findings promise for multipurpose IoT technology with reduced complexity and production costs, features that are highly anticipated in distributed diagnostics, monitoring, safety, and security applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]